Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Going back on are PowerSlot Cryo treated slotted and directionally veined front rotors. Whew. These are produced by stoptech and I've used them for awhile, although this is my first go-round with the Cryo treatment. I'm hoping the little extra scratch helps them last longer. I think I went through 3 sets of rotors last year.

Inside the updated calipers are a new set of Hawk DTC-60's.

My wife volunteered to help some Sunday so I had her pump the pedal for me while I flushed the brake fluid. I've got a Motive Speed Bleeder; but I'll use the help of a human person over it when I can. I ran through about 1.5 bottles of AMSOIL DOT4 and made sure all the air bubbles were gone of course.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Now that I've got the car back, things need to start moving pretty fast. I had the car teched last week, so it's got it's annual tech inspection for NASA TT (no waiting in line; ever). This week I was able to finally get it off the trailer and parked in the garage where I can begin the needed work. The pic (right) is from Monday in my garage. I've got a pretty long list of annual maintenance items including the brakes, semi-annual fluids, aero work, interior work, etc.

Last night I got the car up on jackstands, pulled the tires off, pulled the rotors off and pulled the calipers off. New parts going back in! I've done this stuff enough I have all the needed tools & wrenches memorized (is that sad?). I'll toss in some comparison pics below. First is the calipers I have been running compared to a slightly used (non-tracked) set I picked up that will be going back on. I'll then redo all the seals in the older set, clean them up and keep them around for spares. Thus is the circle of life!

Going back on are PowerSlot Cryo treated slotted and directionally veined front rotors. Whew. These are produced by stoptech and I've used them for awhile, although this is my first go-round with the Cryo treatment. I'm hoping the little extra scratch helps them last longer. I think I went through 3 sets of rotors last year.

Also on the slate are dropping in new Hawk DTC-60's brake pads and a full fluid flush with AMSOIL DOT4. Probably by next week.

Friday, February 17, 2012

After spending a few weeks at Buschur Racing, here's the total installation list. Some of it was planned, some of it we figured out was needed after tuning on the dyno. All-in-all here's the list of installs & updates the car got while at Buschur:

Monday, February 13, 2012

David from Buschur Racing notified me Wednesday the car was ready to go. So after checking the weather forecast, I left after work Thursday for the 1000 mile roundtrip.

Thursday 2/9/12
Took off after work to get the car. Drove about 5hrs and stopped for the night. Nothing special (thankfully). Watched some B-Ball and got the weather forecast for the next day which was some lake effect snow.

Friday 2/10/12
Got up at 5:45am ET, showered, coffee & muffin and on my way. Got to Buschur's about 10am ET. I believe the total from work was 7:15 and 470 miles. Only person I knew was David so I met everyone slowly, grabbed my trailer; loaded up the car and got my dyno sheets after talking with David for a bit.

About 11am ET I was packed up and on my way. I decided to take a different direction home - avoid lake-effect snow, avoid the tollroads with the trailer and get some new scenery to hopefully help keep me awake. I was also curious it the overall time was comparable. The crappy part was the first hour or so was all 2-lane. I did drive past the Mansfield prison (aka Shawshank) which I was lucky enough to tour during NASA Nationals last fall. Shortly after that I hit the interstate and after my GPS re-calced it told me about 15min longer this direction which I was fine with.12:30pm ET - stop for gas, food - and it started to snow! Great. It wasn't collecting but it was sure causing some visibility issues. Snow came and went really.

Crossing into Indiana the weather cleared up; then got worse towards dusk. Had some sleet for a bit but really no ice which I was more worried about.

I passed through Indy about 4pm ET - fortunately traffic wasn't too bad. The bypass was busy but the weather wasn't bad at this point so that was good. This is about the half-way point for me.
Had a fuel stop just before Indy, so a restroom stop afterwards along with some much needed water (bought a gallon; drank half) to try and cancel out all the soda I'd drank all day to stay alert was in order. Started getting dark as I got back to IL and the weather got crappy again. My last stop was a rest area around 6pm CT and you can see the fun below. The last 1.5 hrs there was a 28mph headwind that actually made it difficult to maintain speed! I seen my mpg drop about 1.5-2 mpg just in this stretch alone!

I got home just before 7pm CT. Exhausted and very hungry. Total trip counter below. Just over 7hrs there - much faster with no trailor! The truck also crossed over 30,000; only 1.5 yrs old too

Friday, February 3, 2012

While the car is currently sitting at Buschur racing, I've been busy gathering parts needed for 2012. Some the Evo has been waiting on for install and re-tuning, some are needed for maintenance before the first event and others will be needed down the road in 2012. Here a quick list of what's either been delivered or ordered in the past few weeks: